Man convicted of ex-girlfriend’s 1989 murder dies in prison

An 80-year-old man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend nearly three decades ago has died in prison.

In the spring of 1989 police got a call from the home of 49-year-old Victoria Graham in Urbandale. A man with a gun was there. When police arrived, Graham and her ex-boyfriend, Harvey Spencer of Des Moines, were standing outside and police saw Spencer shoot her to death.

Spencer had already shot another man who was visiting Graham. Police found that man wounded and sitting in a nearby car.

A jury found Graham guilty of first degree murder in 1989 and he’s been in prison ever since. Spencer was in the prison’s hospice care unit when he died of throat cancer on Thursday.